Kurt Russell interview: ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’
Kurt Russell has done just about everything there is to do in Hollywood, having worked as an actor in the industry for more than 60 years. (Russell’s first acting role was an uncredited part in the 1963 Elvis Presley movie “It Happened at the World’s Fair.”) But “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” provided the former Emmy Award nominee with multiple new experiences, chief among them the opportunity to play the same character as his son Wyatt Russell on the Apple TV+ drama.
“We came to find out when we were doing some publicity for the show in Brazil that it had never been done before, where two known actors – father and son – were playing the same character,” Kurt tells Gold Derby in an exclusive video interview. “A lot of fathers and sons have played fathers and sons. And while Wyatt and I had done [the same character] before, Wyatt wasn’t an unknown actor when he was 12 years old [in the film ‘Soldier’]. So this was a completely different thing.”
Created by Chris Black and Matt Fraction and set within the MonsterVerse franchise home to films like 2014’s “Godzilla,” 2017’s “Kong: Skull Island,” and this year’s “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” is not just about origins of the Monarch organization at the center of the franchise’s elaborate conspiracy, but about how a group of people connected to the group respond in the wake of the first Godzilla attack (depicted in 2014’s “Godzilla”). The Russells play Lee Shaw, an army veteran who helps launch Monarch in the 1950s and factors heavily in the show’s present-day storyline. Wyatt stars as the younger Lee and his relationships with Monarch co-founders Bill Randa (Anders Holm, playing a part created by John Goodman in “Kong: Skull Island”) and Keiko Miura (Mari Yamamoto) reach well into the life of the elder Lee (played by Kurt).
“I was kind of hard on it, where I said, we need some cinematic blends, and we need some help here to connect the past and the future, and the present – and then it’s up to us, Wyatt and I, to find the same person,” Kurt says. “In that regard, a lot of it was me reacting or responding to what Wyatt was doing in terms of his energy, his style, his way in terms of what he was laying down as Lee.”
While the Russells don’t share the screen and stayed separate during film because of the show’s schedule, Kurt says a breakthrough came during one day when he got to watch Wyatt perform.
“I was off one day and so I said I wanted to go over and see what was going on with Wyatt. And it was fascinating. For the first time, I was watching Wyatt. I’d been on his sets before and I’ve watched him work and watched the finished product. But I was never in this situation,” Kurt says. “Suddenly, I was I wasn’t watching Wyatt anymore. I was watching this actor play this role that I was going to share and play. There was a moment where I said, ‘Oh, this guy’s really good. Man, I gotta get it together here and bring it.’”
All the work the Russells did offscreen to match each other paid off in the show’s finale, when the elder Lee reunites with Keiko, his long unrequited love who disappeared in the late 1950s and has reemerged alive inside an alternate world. Unlike Lee, Keiko has barely aged a day. The scene is the emotional high point of the series, and it’s the first time Kurt has been onscreen with Yamamoto, whose chemistry with Wyatt has driven so much of the Lee-Keiko relationship.
“My son Boston watched all 10 episodes. He’s a student of the game, he was a religious studies major at Georgetown, and he knows a lot about the mythology of what this comes from. It was interesting to watch him watch the whole thing because we were watching it together – I only watched it once a little bit with Goldie [Hawn], sort of in and out quickly. This one, we watched the whole thing, and he said, ‘I think that’s the best thing I’ve ever seen you do,’” Kurt says of the scene.
“I can remember shooting the day and it was a strange thing for some reason. Whenever I was working with Mari, the emotionality of whatever the connection is that we have as human beings was overriding,” Kurt explains of the tearful reunion. “I felt that if things were done properly with young Lee at the beginning of the story, then that would pay off at the end. It’s a very bizarre situation for the characters. But it was one that I wanted to make relatable. Imagine if you’re in that position. I remember saying to Mari one time, ‘Who you think’s coming out from behind that tree?’ And she said, ‘Well, you?’ And I said, ‘No, Wyatt is coming around from behind that tree. So Lee’s a completely different-looking person now but he’s in there somewhere.’ It gives the scene the proper context for the actors to play it in.”
Kurt says the audience’s response to the finale has been heartening because it proves the concept of the show. “If we can make some people cry and feel something for the human beings in a Godzilla show, I think we’ve done something that hasn’t been done, and it’s something we would like to do again,” he says.
“Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” ends on a cliffhanger, with Keiko returning to the future – now 2017 since time in the Axis Mundi world where she has been for decades moves at a different pace than on Earth – and Lee’s fate left unknown after he sacrificed himself to facilitate the escape. Apple recently renewed the series for a second season, and Kurt says he’d love to come back for more.
“In today’s world, you have to be realistic. If you’re going to promote a show, you’re not promoting it because you’re not in it. So I think that if Keiko can survive down there that long, and Lee could survive down there and he came back [earlier in the season], I got a feeling that all signs point to his return,” Kurt says. “To me, that’s not something to hold back from the audience. I think that what happened in the first season was all the utensils have been laid on the table. You understand who’s got what problems and why. And they’re trying to figure out what to do about it. So I enjoy that. I enjoy that premise. And I hope that we continue to open up categories of interest for the viewer.”
“Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” is streaming on Apple TV+.